3 standouts that could lead Texas basketball to the Final Four

2 of 3

Timmy Allen, Texas basketball Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports /

Timmy Allen, F

Last season was the first time that Allen got to play in the NCAA Tournament. During his three seasons playing for the Utah Utes prior to transferring to Texas during the 2021 offseason, Allen didn’t make it to the Big Dance on a single occasion.

And while the NCAA Tournament run didn’t see Allen playing his best basketball to close out last season, he did seem really hungry to get back to the Big Dance throughout the last offseason.

Back in October during a media availability session, Allen talked about his ambitions for what looks to be his final season at Texas this year. He had the following to say about his ambitions of coming back to Texas for this season when asked about getting selected to the All-Big 12 preseason team.

"“I’m trying to lead to the best of my ability and take us to where we didn’t get last year. You know, people think we had a good year, but it’s not good enough for me, it’s not good enough for our team. So, I got a lot bigger goals than that.”"

And from the direction that Allen’s game is trending in the last four or six weeks, it appears that he is starting to get locked in to move closer to accomplishing the goals he set out for himself and the Longhorns, as a whole, this season.

Allen did get off to a slow start by his usual considerations this season. In the first five games of the regular season, he averaged just 5.4 points per game, 6.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists.

But since the beginning of conference play, Allen has taken his game back to the level we were accustomed to seeing him play at last season. He ranks in the top 20th percentile at his position in the following stat categories since the start of Big 12 play (per CBB Analytics).

12.0 points per game
2.0 assists
1.5 steals
13.6 assist percentage

Allen is doing essentially everything well that Terry and the Longhorns are asking of him in conference play. He’s distributing the ball well from within the two-point arc, scoring at a high clip from the mid-range, and defending at the highest level that we’ve seen from him in the last two seasons in Big 12 play.

Home/Texas Basketball